As Donald Trump takes office as the forty-fifth president of the United States, this course explores presidential elections in historical perspective, via five case studies. It tells the story of key campaigns in US history, and by doing so it investigates how politics changed over time—and how understanding the past sheds light on the current campaign. From the arrival of "dirty politics" to the impact of the "digital revolution," the course looks at the historical background to some of the key phenomena that shaped the controversy-laden campaign of 2016.
The five elections that we'll investigate are among the most significant in American political history. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson won the presidency in a contest that encouraged politicians to reform the electoral college, the system by which presidents are still chosen. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 prompted the outbreak of the Civil War. It's an election that helps us to understand the development of political parties. In 1968, the Vietnam War was a dominant concern for Americans, and yet foreign policy played a secondary role in Richard Nixon's victory. Twelve years later, in 1980, Ronald Reagan won an election that initiated a new era of conservatism. Finally, we'll turn our attention to the election that took Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, to the White House in 2008. Many saw the Obama's success not only as revealing the impact of the digital revolution on campaign politics, but also as signaling a turn to progressivism.
Image credits:
Course logo - "Former President Truman holds a copy of the famous Chicago Daily Tribune paper declaring 'Dewey Defeats Truman'" Harry S. Truman Library & Museum (https://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/view.php?id=38592).
Course banner - "US Flag Backlit" by Joshua Nathanson, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Flag_Backlit.jpg).

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From the lesson

The Election of 1800

The stormy election of 1800 culminated in the election of Thomas Jefferson as president, but it also played an important role in encouraging American politicians to reform the electoral college, which remains the system by which presidents are chosen.

Taught By

Frank Cogliano

David Silkenat

Fabian Hilfrich

Robert Mason

Transcript

So when we consider the election of 1800, which of course, extended to 1801 as well, what are we left with? Jefferson termed the election of 1800 the 'Revolution of 1800'. Now he was given to fits of rhetorical passion sometimes and perhaps exaggeration. But was it truly a revolution? On one hand, one can make the case that it was a revolutionary moment in the history of American politics and the history of the American presidency. For the first time, the presidency had changed hands in the sense that it had gone from one political party to another. Previously, in the 1796 election, George Washington, the outgoing president, had resigned. He had signaled that he wanted to go into retirement, and there was a contest between Adams, representing Washington's own party, and Jefferson. But Adams won, so the same party remained in power. In 1801, we see the first transfer of power in American history. And despite some rumblings from Virginia and Pennsylvania, the transfer of power was peaceful. And this is no insignificant thing. Ever since in the history of the United States, political power in most cases has been transferred peacefully. We'll see with the election of 1860 that that will have consequences for the country that are not peaceful, but the election itself was conducted peacefully. And this is what happened. This was the crucial precedent set in the spring of 1801, which is very, very important. It's also revolutionary, arguably, because Jefferson and the Jeffersonian Republicans represented a very different political ideology from their Federalist predecessors. And although Jefferson kept key elements of the Federalist platform in place, or the Federalist program in place, his election represented a significant shift ideologically for the country, and a significant change in terms of the kind of policies the United States would pursue. And so it's important in that respect as well. It's perhaps less revolutionary when one considers how close the election actually was. The fact that Jefferson very nearly wasn't elected because of the ascendancy of Aaron Burr. So it may not be quite as revolutionary as Jefferson later remembered it to be. But it is a significant turning point in the history of American presidential elections, in part because the Constitution was tested, this was a constitutional crisis at some level, and weathered the storm, and so it's important in that regard as well. In terms of the individuals concerned, Jefferson served two terms as President, he left office in 1809. He's genuinely reckoned to be a successful President. The course of his presidency isn't really our concern today, but it's a significant presidency in the history of the United States. He and John Adams never saw each other again. They'd been very, very close friends when they lived in Europe and when they were representing the United States in Europe, but they never saw each other again. And there was a rift that emerged between them, really it preceded the election, but the election created a real chasm in their relationship. And they weren't reconciled, they didn't begin writing to each other again until 1812. But they spent the final years of their lives writing to each other on a fairly regular basis. And their correspondence is one of the great treasures in American letters. They both died on the same day, the 4th of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of American independence. Aaron Burr had a fairly notorious career after the election of 1800. Jefferson never really trusted Burr after the election controversy in 1800 and 1801. They did not enjoy a close relationship when Burr served as Jefferson's Vice President, and Jefferson dropped him from the ticket in 1804 when he ran for re-election successfully. Burr was later, was subsequently involved in two rather notorious events that characterized American history during the first decade of the 19th century. He killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, in July of 1804. A duel that arose in part from the controversies arising from the election of 1800, and the longstanding rivalry and bitterness between the two men. And a couple of years later, he was subsequently involved in a conspiracy, some alleged to invade Spanish territory to the west of the United States, others have alleged that he sought to break up the United States and create a republic among the western states of the Union, and Burr was tried for treason. He was acquitted, barely, but Burr became a rather notorious figure. He lived until the 1830s, so he was rather long lived. He outlived most of the other participants in this election. As far as the lessons we might draw, the crucial thing to bear in mind as we go forward in the course is to consider the Electoral College. That's the key element that remains the same when it comes to electing presidents. It was in place in 1800, it was crucial to the election of 1800, and it remains so today. And it will be central to the operation of the other presidential elections we'll be discussing during this course. And indeed, next week, my colleague David Silkenat will take over. And David will tell you about the election of 1860, which resulted in Abraham Lincoln becoming President, and ultimately, the dissolution or the attempt to dissolve the United States, resulting in the Civil War.

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